New faculty member to work closely with the Transportation InstituteFor release: January 6, 2009For press information, contact Gabrielle Maxey, 901-678-2843

The Herff College of Engineering is excited to welcome Mihalis Golias to the faculty
in the civil engineering department. Golias brings a wealth of knowledge in freight
transportation to the classroom for our students. He will also work closely with
CIFTS on projects conducted at the University of Memphis. Hisham Gneedy, a graduate
student receiving his master’s degree in the transportation concentration within civil
engineering, and a number of other students met with Golias this fall. Hisham said,
“Golias is incredibly knowledgeable about freight transportation. I am excited to
have someone who is nationally recognized in the freight modeling area join the faculty.”

Golias holds a diploma in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Aristotle University
of Thessaloniki, Greece, and a Graduate Certificate in Transportation Studies and
master’s and Ph.D. degrees in Transportation Engineering from Rutgers University.
For the past two years he has been working as a Research Associate at the Freight
and Maritime Program (FMP) Laboratory at the Center for Advanced Infrastructure and
Transportation at Rutgers University. His core expertise is in the field of freight
and maritime operations with a focus on container terminal operations modeling and
management. He possesses experience with data mining, optimization, transportation
planning, and traffic operations and management. He is familiar with the U.S. and
the European freight industry’s issues and policies and a variety of transportation,
mathematical and statistical analysis software packages. He has developed and co-developed
a number of freight transportation custom-made algorithms and applications, which
are currently used and are available at the FMP laboratory. His recent research work
includes modeling of container terminal operations; intermodal freight network modeling;
traffic congestion and travel time reliability; ITS-assisted operational strategies
to relieve truck traffic related externalities; scheduling and routing of commercial
vehicles to reduce related vehicle mileage; and capital and operational network improvements
to increase transportation efficiency.

When asked about working at the University of Memphis, Golias said, “We are entering
into rapidly changing and volatile times for the transportation and logistics industry,
and optimal operations of intermodal freight transportation systems are vital to the
United States and the world economy. I am excited to be joining the University of
Memphis and the Center for Intermodal Freight Transportation Studies where there are
tremendous opportunities in engaging in state-of-the-art research, development of
education initiatives and adaptation or development of technology solutions for the
freight industry, and the transportation professionals and research at national and
international levels.”